Sports Video Games that are Worth Reselling

Sports games are generally pretty worthless when it comes to resale value. But like, everything else, there are some solid flips to be made if you know what to look for.

This won’t be a list of the most insanely super rare sports video games that have ever sold in collector auctions for thousands and thousands of dollars like NBA Elite 11. Lists like that can be fun, but the information isn’t very practical since you’ll never come across those items when sourcing to resell.

I want this list to help when you roll up on yard sale, a marketplace bundle or a thrift store shelf that looks like this:

This article is not going to talk about new/sealed games, retro console games or games for handheld systems such as PSP, Nintendo DS and the like. All of those should be looked up (even if they are sports games). The farthest back we’ll go here is PS2 and the original XBox because I still come across plenty of titles from those systems. I’m also not going to talk about releases that are only a couple years old.

This will be a long post so to narrow it down even more I’m also not going to talk about Mario sports games (if you see a game with Mario on the cover, it’s typically good) or Wrestling Games (most go for $10+ by the way). I want to focus on the sports franchises that release a new game every year but I’ll include some others as well.

I’m going to give average sold comps these games go for when priced correctly. These aren’t super scientific, I’m eyeballing Ebay sold listings as a reseller and determining how I would price these games if I was listing one today. The low end of the range would be for poor condition or disc only listings, the high end is for complete games in good condition. All prices are for PRE-OWNED/USED.

Below you’ll find background info, cool jokes and photos of the games you are looking for, but if you want to skip all the reading then you can click here for the spreadsheet.

First, the realistic grails

Even the most casual video game sellers are typically aware of these two titles. But in case you are not, these are two grails that you are always hoping to see mixed into a stack of “worthless” sports games. These are scarce, but still realistic to find:

The last time I found NCAA Football 14 was at a church thrift store. It was under a table in a bin of DVDs with a few random XBox 360 games mixed in. EA Sports hasn’t released a new NCAA Football game since 2013 after the NCAA didn’t renew their license. A couple of lawsuits concerning college players not being compensated for their likenesses being used for profit muddied the waters of collegiate sports video games. You can read all about it here if you’d like, but the main thing to know is this game sells for $80-$120.

NCAA Basketball 10 is valuable for a similar reason, it’s the last game in the series that was released. Look for that Blake Griffin cover to distinguish this among similar titles. Prices for this game usually spike in February/March when the NCAA tournament rolls around. The XBox version tends to go for more than PS3 copies, selling overall for $35-$50.

Wii Sports Games

Any Wii Sports games is an extremely solid flip. Many copies of Wii Sports are disc only, but don’t let that scare you off since they were released that way with the consoles.

Both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort sell very consistently in the $18 to $25 range. There is a combo disc with both games on it that’s an easy $35 to $40. The most recent installment, Wii U Sports Club (recognizable by its blue case) will fetch anywhere from $42 to $55.

Common Sports

Now let’s get into the bulk of our content with the common sports: Football, Basketball, Hockey, Baseball, Soccer and Golf. These are the series that come out with an updated version consistently year to year. These games are everywhere and present some of the lowest values in the second hand market. This leads to many resellers simply missing the ones that do have solid value. So if you’re tired of walking past money, read on.

Golf

Tiger Woods dominated the golf world for many years so it’s no surprise that his video games were extremely popular over their 16 year run concluding with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. You’ll notice a common theme with this list is that the last available version of something tends to hold higher value and that’s true with this series as well.

Tiger Woods 14 came in two different versions. The Masters Historic Edition is highly desirable and will easily fetch anywhere from $30-$45. Pricing can be confusing on the non-Masters versions because people don’t pay great attention to detail. There’s no point in pricing it up like the Masters edition but it’s still a very solid sports game flip going for anywhere from $15-$23.

Along the same lines, the Masters editions of Tiger Woods 12 and 13 are worth picking up or selling separately if acquired in a lot. The XBox 360 and PS3 versions are worth $10 to $20. Pay particular attention for the Wii version of this game though, it goes for considerably more commanding up to $35 when complete with case and manual.

A couple of other titles from this series are worth flipping if you get them very cheap. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 Collectors edition – $10 to $15 ; Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for Wii – $10 to $15; and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for Wii or PS2 – $10 to $15

This list focuses on console games but it’s not unusual to see PC games mixed in with the DVDs and video games when thrifting. So as an honorable mention, I wanted to call out Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for the PC. The console versions are a hard pass but the PC version consistently sells for $15 – $25.

Basketball

We already covered NCAA Basketball 10 but there are some other basketball titles that can make you money. The game from the year before, NCAA Basketball 09, carries a little value as well and consistently sells in the $12 to $20 range with PS3 and XBox 360 being the preferred versions and PS2 selling at the bottom of that range.

College Hoops 2K8 is not only the last 2K Sports college basketball game but also an amazing game to play. Those two factors make the demand and resale value quite high. The PS3 and XBox 360 versions sell quickly for anywhere from $50 – $75. This another one of those titles that was released simultaneously for PS2 & PS3. Unfortunately the PS2 version is much less valuable and goes for around $20. 2K8’s predecessor College Hoops 2K7 can still be a solid flip and goes $10 to $25 (again with PS3/Xbox being the more expensive versions).

Football

Of course John Madden Football will be represented in any discussion of sports video games. The original game that inspired this series actually came out in 1988 for the Apple II and its still going strong with the most recent (Madden NFL 21) hitting the market in August 2020.

On the resale market the 20 year anniversary collectors edition will sell pretty consistently for around $18 but ranges from $12 to $25.

Madden NFL 09 featured Brett Favre on the cover even though he had retired the year before. The cover features him in a Packers uniform, but then he actually came out of retirement to play for the Jets. EA Sports made a downloadable replacement cover with Favre in his Jets uniform. Some people say there are copies with a two sided cover so that you could sport the Favre of your choice but I’m not positive if that’s true or not. The main reason this game holds value is it was the very last game produced for the original Xbox and that version of it will sell for $25 to $35.

Madden NFL 17 still sells for $18 to $28 but I would expect that value to drop over time. Madden NFL 12 for the PS2 is one of the better sports game flips for that console. This was the last Madden available for the PS2 and it sells for $20 to $30. Madden 08 is another worthy PC version honorable mention. This was the last version of Madden available on PC until it resumed in 2018 some 11 years later. The 08 version is still hugely popular among PC gamers and will sell very quickly for $25 to $40.

We already covered the extreme value of NCAA Football 14. If you miss by a year or two, don’t fret. You won’t have a hundred dollar game but NCAA Football 13 and 12 both have really good value (for sports games). NCAA Football 13 will fetch anywhere from $16 up to $30. And NCAA Football 12 is a solid $10 to $15 game.

NCAA Football 11 holds value for a couple of different reasons. Number 1, It’s Tebow Time baby! And also, this is the last NCAA Football available for the PS2. The black label version will get you $36 to $45!

All Pro Football 2K8 was the last football game by 2K Sports. And like all things last, it holds value for those gamers that don’t want to let a franchise die. This game will bring between $20 and $32 so don’t pass it up!

ESPN NFL 2K5 was available on the original XBox and the PS2. Both platforms sell for about the same money, anywhere from $15 to $25. There is a subset of sports gamers that believe this game is better than Madden and one of the best NFL games ever made.

Occasionally a sports game that falls outside of the typical franchises will make an impact and present some resell opportunity for you. Two of them in the football are pictured here. Backbreaker is pretty solid game going for anywhere from $13-$26. It was available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Blitz the League II features Lawrence Taylor on the cover. It has a very wide price range going anywhere from $25 all the way up to $100. It is a consistent seller in the $45-$60 range.

Soccer

As die hard as soccer fans are you would think there would be some great soccer/futbol titles to be on the lookout for. But there just aren’t many that consistently crack the $10 mark when it comes to reselling pre-owned video games.

Fifa Soccer 12 for the PS2 is just about your only soccer title to be on the lookout for. This was the last Fifa game available for the PS2 and will sell for $20-$28. Don’t pick up copies of this game for any other platform, the PS2 is the only one that holds value.

One other soccer game with some current value is Fifa 18 Legacy Edition. This will currently fetch $17-$25. It remains to be seen if it still holds value over time because of the Legacy Edition or if the value erodes as newer editions are released.

Baseball

Similar situation to soccer, the baseball genre doesn’t offer a ton of high value games but there are several in the $10 to $25 range. One area to look for in particular is Wii baseball games. The Cages goes for $15 to $20, Little League World Series 2009 brings $12 to $20 and MLB Power Pros 2008 goes for $15 up to $25.

MVP 07 NCAA Baseball is the only college game that makes the list. The PS2 version consistently sells in the $10 to $17 range. MLB 2K13 won’t make you rich but is worth selling on its own for $10 to $15. MLB The Show 16 was an extremely popular baseball game and still commands $15 to $25 for pre-owned copies.

2K Sports is known for making extremely fun to play sports games. The Bigs 2 commands $15 to $25 consistently. You want to make sure to get “2” instead of the original to fetch that selling price

If you find EA Sports’ MVP Baseball 2005 for the PS2 or original Xbox you’ll be lucky to sell it for $10. But the PC version is an easy $35.

Hockey

There aren’t a ton of hockey games to be on the look out for. A couple for PS2 and the original Xbox are from the Hitz series. NHL Hitz 2003 will get you $12 to $25 and NHL Hitz Pro is about the same value, bringing anywhere from $12 to $20.

A couple of other hockey games worth selling buy themselves are NHL 2K10 and EA Sports NHL Legacy Edition. Both of these titles will go for $10 to $15.

NHL Slapshot for the Wii is a special case. The game by itself is only worth $5-$10, but if you have the stick controller with it then the bundle will go for $35 or $40.

Other Sports and Honorable Mentions

While the majority of the sports games you’ll come across will be in the major sports discussed above, some games from less mainstream sports can be profitable as well. Here are a few to keep an eye out for.

Among enthusiasts, Rugby 08 is regarded to be the best rugby video game ever made. For resellers who know, it’s regarded as a $15-$20 flip. Wii excels at making fun games in a variety of sports and Wii Punch-Out sells for $15 to $25. A lot of Rapala Pro Bass Fishing games go in the $10 to $15 range; however, if you have the fishing rod controller along with it, you can get up to $40 typically. There are rods for Wii, Xbox and Playstation consoles.

Kinect Sports Rivals is Xbox taking a page out of Wii’s book and making a fun multi sport motion controlled game. This title sells for $18 to $27. There are a lot of Cabela’s Big Game Hunter titles floating around thrift stores and yard sales. The one you want is Pro Hunts pictured above. This particular title sells for $20 to $45 with Xbox and Playstation versions on the lower end and the Wii U version at the higher end of the range.

If you see covers like this you’ll more than likely want to research the game. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. It’s pretty much what it looks like, digital bikini babes bouncing and wiggling while playing beach volleyball. There are 3 or 4 in the series, possibly more. Most will sell for $15 to $20, some for even more.